Saturday, 8th May 2010 (Presently in Tahiti, South Pacific)
06.00hrs A lot of noise around the place, including that baby screaming every morning on the catamaran beside us. We could almost smell the dirty nappy... ohhhhhhh
Full of energy (the lamb last night) the skipper got into the rib and inflated the front section (the part that had the air leak) and which Christian repaired yesterday, and then set about cleaning the starboard side of the boat with neat vinegar. It worked perfectly, and 2 hours later, that side of the boat looked brilliant, plus the rib was still hard. Progress...................actually, now that I think of it, they used vinegar to clean the boat in Flamenco Bay, Panama, including the decks.Its amazing what one can do if they have to. The boat yard wanted 1000 euros to do that cleaning job... glad we didn't go there and do that.
09.00hrs Donal took off to town again, this time to finalize his travel home in June, and he has decided to skip N.Z. and fly direct to L.A. and rent a car for a week and drive across America to N.Y. on route 66, calling to his friends on the way.... Shortly after, Christian arrived for his money.... $15. He did a great job and the money was excellent value. No sooner had Christian left, than the mechanic arrived to fix the Generators stop system, been giving a bit of trouble lately again, like not shutting down the generator. The alternative is a blinking pain, and usually entails taking the housing that surrounds the genny apart, taking the insulated panels of the genny, and opening one of the injectors to cease the engine. Its even worse after a bottle of wine. However, Morgan" the mechanic and son of Marco ( the mechanic that came the first day) did a great job. When he was finished, the genny shut down instantly each time we pressed the button... great stuff, but we will really only know after a few days at sea how well he did.
After lunch, we got another 43L of diesel and put it into our tank, this time at 79f per litter rather than the 120f the other day. Later still, Skipper walked up to the supermarket and bought a few items like vinegar, buckets, syphon, ice, more lamb for energy, and a few other useless bits and totally superfluous to our requirements. On returning to the boat, Donal was just at the end of his siesta, so the Skipper was able to take control of the galley and immediately put a lovely piece of " Belly Pork " into the oven, with some roast spuds too. But not to be outdone, Donal (while the skippers dinner was in the oven) sneaked into the Galley and started making a " Beouf Burginioun" for tomorrow or to the freezer, depending on how we feel tomorrow. The pork was delicious, and well washed down with rum and 7up for a change.
An early night again.....................ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
That's it for today,
Stephen Hyde (Skipper)